Gold exports worth Rs 12 billion: 200 Form-E found to be fake

Banks have reportedly declared some 200 Form-E fake, submitted in the gold exports worth Rs 12 billion during 2011-2014, it was learnt here on Sunday. According to sources, the Directorate of Internal Audit of Pakistan Customs after noticing fake Form-E submission in gold exports had sent some 3374 Form-E to the banks for verification. They said that exporters had submitted 3,374 Form-E of some 17 financial institutions against Rs 170 billion gold exports during the said period.

Moreover, sources said that out of total 3,374 Form-E, the banks had so far confirmed that some 200 Form-E submitted in the gold exports worth Rs 12 billion were fake.

They said that these fake Form-E had been submitted by five exporters and department had lodged nine FIRs against them. Furthermore, the sources said that some 125-130 exporters had submitted 3,320 against Rs 170 billion gold exports during 2011-2014.

They said that a large number of exporters in order to cash dollar-rate difference between interbank and open market was reportedly involved in the submission of fake Form-Es, which were not only to avoid realisation of foreign remittances in Pakistan but also for using the foreign exchange in money laundering abroad.

They said that customs department in order to avoid the submission of fake Form-E had now decided to launch ”Online Form-Es Module (OFEM)” for banks from October 2015 under central bank supervision.

Furthermore sources said that the concept of OFEM was generated after significant increase in the incidents of fake Form-E submission by the exporters. The customs authorities are of the view that these incidents are rapidly increased, due to absence of online co-ordination between banks and the customs department for Form-E verification. They said that banks after the launch of OFEM would liable to submit all export related details to customs department through OFEM and the submission of scanned Form-Es from exporters would completely be banned.